


like, ninety percent sure.

by peppermintcas



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-13
Updated: 2014-10-13
Packaged: 2018-02-21 02:29:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2451320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peppermintcas/pseuds/peppermintcas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Of all the pairings the Aphrodite cabin had predicted, this hadn't been one of them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	like, ninety percent sure.

**Author's Note:**

> There aren't enough Piper and Nico fics in this world.

Piper was, like, ninety percent sure something was up with Nico di Angelo and Will Solace. Like, two of the least likely people in camp to hang out together. A son of Hades and a son of Apollo—of all the pairings the Aphrodite cabin had predicted, this hadn’t been one of them.

——

 _Everyone_ in camp knew. Literally, everyone.

Like anyone could miss Will Solace leaning down at the Hades table—which Nico currently shared with Jason, and by extension, Piper—and whispering in Nico’s ear. Or the way the two sat together at councils, basically pressed against each other. Or the campfire sing alongs, when Will tried to cajole Nico into singing, and ended up just laughing at the glower on his face. Or the way Nico would disappear into the infirmary, or the Apollo cabin—the latter notably rarer, but getting more and more frequent—and emerge hours later, hands shoved in his pockets, with a markedly _happy_ expression. Or—

You get the idea.

The point is, Piper knew, everyone knew, but at the same time, _no one knew_. The whole thing was extremely frustrating. Like knowing something, but not quite remembering it. Right there, on the tip of your tongue, just slightly out of reach.

And Piper was determined to get to the bottom of it.

——

She plunked down her tray, sat down next to Nico, and said brightly, “Hey.”

Nico eyed her, slightly wary. Even three months after the battle with Gaea, three months of sitting with her and Jason, three months of cautious friendship—he was still nervous around, well, almost everyone. He wasn’t used to being wanted, Piper thought, a little bit abashed. She had to admit she hadn’t been his biggest fan when he came on board the Argo II, which led her to thoughts of the rest of the seven, which led to Leo, and—no.

She wondered if he was in Elysium.

“Um… hi?” Nico shifted, slightly uncomfortable, but mostly used to it. “Where’s Jason?”

“Oh, he’s coming, he had to—,” Piper waved her hand vaguely, “—do something, I think.” Which was true, actually. He was down at the canoe lake, fishing out a couple of new arrivals. “How are you?”

Nico shrugged and glanced down at his sausages, but Piper could sense the red starting to flush his cheeks. “I’m—I’m fine.” He cleared his throat and gestured at her breakfast. “You going to eat that?”

Piper, used to Nico’s diversionary tactics, crossed her arms and looked pointedly at him. “Nico, you know I’m a daughter of Aphrodite, right?”

“Uh, yeah.” Nico’s eyes went wide with realization. “Oh. _Oh_.” Then, obviously thinking he was subtly speaking under his breath, he muttered, “Jason told me you’d be like this.”

That got Piper’s attention. “Um, what?”

“You want to know about Will. _Everyone_ wants to know about Will. I got an Iris-message from _Hazel_ asking me about Will. Gods of _Olympus_ , does everyone know.” Nico stabbed a fork into his food and crossly bit off a huge chunk of his pancake (skull shaped, which Piper found slightly creepy). “How did _Hazel_ know, of all people? Who told her?”

Piper scowled, miffed. “Yeah, that was me. I thought that Hazel asking would be better than me asking, which, obviously, no. So, I’m left with no other choice.” She dramatically placed her hands on the table and leaned forward, shifting so she could face Nico head-on. “What’s going on with you and Will?”

Nico stared at her, unimpressed. “I kind of immunized myself against your charmspeak. It’s not going to work on me.”

Piper sat back. “I wasn’t _using_ charmspeak. I wouldn’t do it to get information out of a friend.” She sighed, blowing hair out of her face. Gods, she just wanted to _know_. “Is it that hard to believe that I’m asking out of genuine concern and curiosity? Like, as a friend?”

Nico’s expression shifted. Piper could feel his defenses uncertainly going up, wondering if she was being honest. He hesitated. For her part, she tried to look as sincere as possible.

“I—” Nico paused again, clearly frustrated. “Look, I appreciate the, uh, concern—” Piper noticed he balked slightly on the word— “But seriously. We’re fine. Um, nothing’s going on.”

The last sentence was obviously a blatant lie. Piper studied him. Nico had gained some weight after choosing to stay at Camp Half Blood, but she was still surprised at how wiry he was, how taut and closed off his shoulders could be. His face had lost its gaunt, haunted look recently, but in times like now, Piper could see the expression returning. Or a ghost of it. But it was enough for Piper to concede defeat— at least, for now.

Will paused at their table, looked back and forth between Piper and Nico, and said brightly, “Hey.”

——

“He’s just so—fucking _shy_ , you know?” Piper said exasperatedly to Reyna.

The Iris-message shimmered in the late afternoon light, Reyna’s face obscured now and then by a small spray of water from the naiads dancing below. Piper ignored them. “And he won’t tell me what’s going on, and I know something’s up, everyone knows it.” She glared across the green, where Nico was sitting with Will, gesturing expansively. Once in a while, they’d both laugh—Will doubling over, Nico watching him fondly.

Reyna laughed. “Nico’s not exactly the sharing and caring type, Piper.”

“I _know_ ,” Piper exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. “But he’s just so _dense_. Gods, I don’t know whether I want to give him a hug or strangle him. Probably both.” She considered. “Yeah, probably both.”

——

Piper set down her tray next to Nico’s again for the third time in as many days, leaned forward, and said, “Fine.”

Nico paused, eyeing her suspiciously, soup dripping from his spoon. “Fine, what?”

She looked at him. He was still watching her, his eyebrows raised, a stormy look starting to cloud over his face. He was like a cat, she mused. Standoffish and in denial about affection.

“Fine, as in, I’ll stop bothering you about Will.” Piper averted her gaze. “I’m sorry. That may have been a little bit—prying. I just wanted you to know you can, you know, come talk to me about—stuff. As a friend. Because you’re my friend.” She studied her food, blushing. After a minute of silence on Nico’s part, she glanced up. He was still staring at her (though he had lowered his soup spoon back into his bowl). Now they were both blushing, and it was getting— _incredibly_ awkward. Oh, gods. Jason was going to laugh his ass off if he heard about this.

After a few more seconds of silence, Nico’s mouth twitched.

“Oh my _gods_ ,” Piper said crossly, as Nico started laughing. “For fuck’s _sake_ , I was just trying to help.”

——

The day after, Piper was limping—she had had a bad run-in with a giant orange squid in the canoe lake— and so she headed to the infirmary to get some help from the Apollo kids.

Of all the ways that Piper wanted to find out about Will and Nico, walking in on them making out against a medical cabinet—that _really_ wasn’t one of them.

But still— incredibly satisfying.

She thought she caught a smug grin from Nico as she squeaked, turned, and fled the tent.


End file.
